The Fragility of Life
by Priestess Mayumi
Summary: A collection of Akito and Yuki childhood oneshots : Chap. 2: Ice cream on a hot summer's day?
1. Chapter 1

Just a publishing base for a series of fan fics centering on Akito and Yuki's relationship

I do not own Fruits Basket. I would be extraordinarily rich if I did, and then I wouldn't be writing on Fan Fiction, would I?

* * *

Yuki stared down at the ground, eyes wide in horror. Lying in a cruel metal trap by his feet was a dead rat. Its neck had snapped in a matter of seconds, and now it was dead.

The six-year-old fell to the ground and started to cry. It wasn't fair.

_That could have been _me, he thought in fright. _I had less right to live than this creature, which never harmed nor disobeyed anyone._

Yuki's body started to shake from crying and harsh sobs, breaking through his throat, were threatening to trigger a dangerous bronchial attack. However, he couldn't stop. As a child, he'd never been exposed to true loss or death, and was now terrified at the realization that life was so fragile.

He heard soft footfalls behind him and tensed his back. He was afraid that whoever was coming would yell at him for mourning the dead creature. They didn't understand the bond that the young boy shared with this unfortunate rat.

"Yuki? What's the matter?"

Surprised at the voice, Yuki turned around and looked into the dark eyes of Akito. His cousin was elder by three years, but seemed decades older than he truly was. Now, however, the nine-year-old's eyes were filled with something akin to worry and perhaps sympathy. Unable to speak, for sorrow, Yuki simply gestured to the trap on the floor. Akito noiselessly sunk down beside Yuki and stared at the trap for moments that seemed like an eternity, dark eyes never moving away from the gruesome scene.

Finally, Akito reached out and pushed the release on the trap. Softly, he picked up the dead creature and cradled it against his heart. What happened then, Yuki could never have anticipated…

Akito began to cry.

Yuki knew that his cousin's life was not a happy one: constantly sick, with one parent dead and the other one distant and cruel. He'd seen the fake tears Akito shed for pity and attention. However, he'd never seen Akito genuinely crying. Yet, here he was, the head of the Sohma family, sobbing over dead rat. His sickly frame was shuddering as he clasped the rat closer and closer. Yuki reached out a hand to almost touch Akito's shoulder, but drew back, fearful of how his cousin would react.

Suddenly, Akito seemed to remember where he was. He put a hand over his mouth to stifle the crying and waited a few moments until his tears dried before turning to face Yuki with flashing eyes. "Come on."

Not sure what to do, Yuki watched as Akito stood up and started walking down the hall. After a minute of consideration, Yuki stood and followed his older cousin. Akito weaved through the dark halls of the Sohma house until he came to a screen door and pushed it open gently.

There was pouring rain outside. Yuki took a step back; Akito wasn't supposed to go out in the rain because of his health. That's wasn't stopping his cousin. Sensing Yuki's hesitance, Akito turned around and took his hand tightly, leading him off the porch and into the turbulent night. Yuki didn't pay attention to how he was moving. He only watched Akito's pale face and how the shadowy moonlight and grey cloud-shadows played across it. Yuki could still see the trails that his cousin's icy tears had travelled down on that pale skin.

When the two children came to a stop, Yuki saw a beautiful flowering bush in front of their path. Within the confines of the "inside", it was the most beautiful thing on the grounds, according to Akito. He and Shigure frequently spent afternoons by the blossoming plant.

Akito knelt on the sodden ground, motioning for Yuki to do the same. When the child had settled himself down, trying to get as little mud on his clothes as possible, Akito set the rat carcass down on the ground and started to dig in the soil with his long fingernails. Feeling odd for just sitting there, Yuki leaned over and started to dig too. He thought that Akito might have pushed his hands away. He didn't.

When there was a significantly large hole under the flowering bush, the Zodiac god picked up the rat again, stroking it across the head gently. "It's not much…" he whispered to the dead animal, "but it's the most that I can do for you." Laying the rodent down in the ground, Akito softly brushed the disturbed soil back over the hole. When he finished, Akito clasped his hands in front of his chest and began to pray. Yuki couldn't hear the words his cousin was saying; he could only watch Akito's mouth move as he whispered last rites to the unfortunate creature.

Yuki himself placed his hands in a reverent manner. _Please…if there is another god out there, please help this one. Please…help this family. Help _me. _I don't want to end up like…_

"Akito! Yuki!" The two cousins turned around to see the impassive figure of Hatori standing over them. He was eight years Akito's senior, eleven for Yuki, but he seemed so much older than that at times. "What do you two think you're doing? You both have delicate conditions. What if you should catch pneumonia from sitting out here in the rain?"

Yuki flushed in embarrassment while Akito just stared with a stoic expression at the doctor. Hatori sighed and moved to sweep the small god up in his arms. When Akito had settled into his carrying arms like a baby, the doctor turned to Yuki. "Go home."

Yuki's eyes went wide for a moment before he nodded and raised himself up off the ground, pit-pattering away across the "inside".

Hatori sighed as he started carrying his little cousin back to her room. She was breathing softly, and he thought she was asleep, until she spoke.

"Hatori? Why is life so fragile?"

Hatori was surprised by Akito's question and, for a moment, didn't know how to answer it. After a long pause, filled partially by the doctor's soft footfalls, he replied, "To remind us of how beautiful it is."

"This…this is an ugly but beautiful world, isn't it?"

"Hai," Hatori nodded in agreement. The tone in Akito's voice was so soft that the dragon was starting to wonder what had gotten into her and Yuki.

"Akito-sama! What happened to you?" Miyu, one of the head servants, ran from the shelter of the main house. She laid a hand on Akito's forehead. "You have a terrible fever! Hatori-san, thanks for saving Akito-sama."

The dragon nodded. "I'll put him to bed."

"M-Mi-Miyu?" The young, black-haired child stirred in Hatori's arms.

"Yes, Akito-sama?"

"Tomorrow…I want _every single_ rat trap 'inside' disposed of."

Miyu's eyes went wide, "But, Akito-sama…"

"All of them, Miyu. Those on the outside may keep their stupid traps, but the ones on the inside have to go…especially those around the main house."

Hatori was surprised when Miyu nodded and hurried off to fulfill Akito's request, but even more surprised at Akito for being thoughtful like this. It made him think of her question again: "_Why is life so fragile?_"

_Maybe someday, Akito will learn to make life more lasting. _


	2. Chapter 2

Okies...story #2 :)

I just love the Akito and Yuki relationship! I hope you guys enjoy! Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far. Please keep them coming!

* * *

It was a hot day at the Sohma house. In an extremely rare gesture, Akito had opened the doors to his room, allowing what was rest of the early summer breeze to flow through the chamber where he and Yuki were playing.

The cousins were building model structures out of recycled Popsicle sticks. The self-proclaimed "Three Musketeers" Shigure, Ayame, and Hatori had been saving the sticks from their frozen treats and giving them to the god and rat to play with.

Considering the two cousins had never received much in the way of toys, the sticks were like an extravagant gift.

Akito had busied himself with creating a model of the only structure with which he was terribly familiar: the main house. Akito wasn't very artistic and so Yuki had to squint to see the resemblance between the pile of sticks and the structure they were sitting in. Of course, he would never tell Akito that.

Yuki, himself, was making a model of his elementary school. Although it was better than Akito's project, Yuki couldn't deny that his work of art was far from a masterpiece. The rat wasn't particuarly talented at, well, anything. His brother Ayame had gotten their mother's artistic genes. Yuki wished so badly that he could be creative...that he could send his mother a picture that she would hang on the refrigerator...like so many of nii-san's.

Glancing over his collapsing building, Akito stared at Yuki's project. "What is it?"

"My school. Do you like it?"

The minute Yuki said those words, he wished he could take them back. He was asking for a stinging remark like, 'It's so ugly! Can't you do anything? You're so..._mediocre_'. That word was the one Yuki's mother always used to hurt him. _Mediocre_. The young rat would rather be sub-par than mediocre. Akito spoke quite like his mother. Yuki could never tell whether he was trying to sting personally, or whether she simply had a sarcastic sense of humor, like Hatori, and was taking it too far.

That's why Yuki was surprised by his cousin's answer. The child's eyes lowered and he softly whispered, almost mournfully, "I...I'd like to see the real thing".

Yuki's eyes shot up and for a moment, it looked like Akito's eyes were becoming misty. The moment passed quickly and the god tossed his head proudly and returned to building.

Yuki had barely just reached for his next stick when they heard the sound...

_Dum-dum-dah-dah-dah, dum-dum-dum-dah-dah-dah-dah..._

"Ice cream!" Akito immediately jumped up and clapped his hands gleefully at the wonderful sound. Yuki, himself, sighed in relief and wiped the sweat from his brow. It had been starting to get hot in there, despite the open doors!

After hurridly opening and closing a drawer, Akito stuffed several yen into Yuki's hot hand. "Go! Go quick!" Not even giving Yuki a chance to respond, Akito pushed him out the doors toward the carnival-like sound.

* * *

A hot and sweaty Hatori was sitting down at his desk, getting a start on his summer homework. He'd heard that in other countries, kids didn't have have schoolwork to do over summer vacations. Lucky Americans...

His arithmatic was interrupted by a loud scream from Akito's room. The scream was recognizably Yuki's. Hatori's stomach started churning immediately. Yuki screaming from Akito's room was _never_ a good thing.

Running to Akito's room, Hatori saw that the doors were thrown wide open. _That's strange..._Hatori thought. Akito never did any of her "displays" in public. Jumping through the suspiciously open doorway, Hatori looked in quickly.

What he saw was, to say the least, completely unexpected.

Yuki was standing by the outside door, holding two mint chocolate-chip ice cream cones in his hands. The young boy's mouth was open and his violet eyes were shaking in fear.

Akito, on the other hand, lay groaning on the floor, curled up into a small ball with airs clutching her stomach and chest. Sweat was rolling down the little girl's forehead in buckets.

Suddenly seeing his older cousin standing at the doorway, Yuki looked up with tear-filled eyes and started stammering, "I...I only left for a minute and...and when I came back...oh no...Akito-san!"

Acting quickly, Hatori went straight to Akito and sat her up against his chest. Her air was coming in quick, short breaths. _She probably got overheated..._thought the dragon quickly. "Yuki! We need to get Akito into his bed."

Hatori gently lifted and lowered Akito onto her sleeping pallet as Yuki smoothed out the wrinkles, straightened the pillow, and pulled back the blankets. Akito gave a few moans during the process, but no other noise escaped her. She had already given herself away to the darkness.

And so Yuki stood there, frozen in place and unable to move, while Hatori tended to their cousin, with sticky ice cream running down his fingers.

* * *

When Akito finally woke up, Yuki started to panic. Not only was the ice cream all melted, but it had left a wet, sticky puddle all over the floor. Akito, the obligatory neat-freak was not going to be happy.

To the rat's surprise, Akito mearly stretched his had toward Yuki and smiled, motioning for him to come closer. Yuki's tears of fear started all over again. "I...I'm so sorry Akito-san!" Coming closer, he saw Akito eying the two soggy cones in his hands. Trembling fingers reaching out, Akito took the cone and started to lick it.

"Mint chocolate-chip?" Yuki nodded sadly, hiccuping.

"It's the best ice cream I've ever had," Akito smiled. "The best part is, you waited to share it with me...Yuki. You're my best friend." The tears of fear immediately turned into ones of relief. Yuki climbed into the bed beside his sick cousin, and they finished their cones together.

* * *

Kinda short, but I'm in a hurry to get off to college. I already know what the next one will be...and it's gonna be S-A-D!


End file.
